The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - August 6, 2024

Starting point is 00:00:00 Howdy, folks. Today is Tuesday, August 6, and you're listening to the Texans Daily Rundown. I'm the Texans Assistant Editor Rob Lausches, and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. First up, Vice President and presumptive 2024 Democratic nominee for President Kamala Harris has selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. Harris wrote in her announcement, quote, As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he's delivered for working families like his. A former high school teacher, Walz was first elected governor in 2018 and won re-election in 2022. He was a member of the Army National Guard. He also served in the United States House of Representatives in 2006 and was re-elected for another five terms, serving Minnesota's first congressional district in

Starting point is 00:00:57 southern Minnesota. Texas Governor Greg Abbott called the pairing of Harris and Walls the most dangerous presidential ticket ever. Next, a U.S. District Court judge ruled this week that Google violated federal antitrust law, creating an illegal monopoly with both its search engine and text advertising. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta for the District of Columbia concluded that Google violated the Sherman Act. Section 2 of the Sherman Act, also known as the Sherman Antitrust Act, makes it unlawful for any person to, quote,

Starting point is 00:01:31 monopolize or attempt to monopolize or combine or conspire with any other person or persons to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several states or with foreign nations. Mehta stated that Google is a monopolist and has acted as one to maintain its monopoly. Furthermore, Mehta writes that Google holds monopoly power over the market for general search services, and that, quote, Google has exercised its monopoly power by charging super-competitive prices for general search text ads. He continues, quote, that conduct has allowed Google to earn monopoly profits. In other news, the Biden administration filed a notice of appeal in a case concerning the federal government's pause on applications

Starting point is 00:02:16 to export liquefied natural gas. A month ago, a federal district court judge approved a preliminary injunction against the administrative rule pending further evaluation of the case. Louisiana, Texas, and other red states had sued the Department of Energy over its rule pausing consideration of applications to export liquefied natural gas to non-free trade agreement countries. The maneuver came at the beginning of 2024, an election year, and the administration justified it as part of its effort to, quote, tackle the climate crisis at home. The state coalition sued and secured a preliminary injunction when Judge James Cain ruled, quote, Considering that the DOE will be allowing a 60-day comment period through an announcement in the Federal Register after they update their studies, which have already been updated, this court is concerned that the DOE's actions are no more than a backdoor scheme to circumvent the Administrative Procedure Act. Kane ordered a pause on the pause from the administration, and now the federal government is asking the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to

Starting point is 00:03:19 vacate the preliminary injunction. Also, last week, the Texas Transportation Commission voted to approve the purchase of Toll Road Highway 288 in Harris County for $1.7 billion. The original Comprehensive Development Agreement gave the Texas Department of Transportation, or TxDOT, the right to terminate the agreement, quote, if the department determines in its discretion that a termination is in the department's best interest. TxDOT notified the Blue Ridge Transportation Group, which constructed the highway, of the termination effective October 8, 2024. State Representative Briscoe Cain posted a letter to X with questions for TxDOT that he believes are important to understand the buyout of Highway 288. Kane inquired,

Starting point is 00:04:07 Last but not least, Elon Musk has officially launched Ad Astra, a Montessori-method private children's school in Bastrop. Montessori schools employ a method of self-directed activity, supported through guided hands-on learning and collaboration with teachers. Ad Astra, which is Latin for To the Stars, is already accepting applications for the 2024-2025 school year, and is open to children ages 3 through 9. The school's landing page states, quote, Ad Astra's mission is to foster curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking in the next generation of problem solvers and builders. Musk first started Ad Astra back in 2015 for SpaceX employees' families.

Starting point is 00:05:06 Thanks for listening. To support The Texan, please be sure to visit thetexan.news and subscribe to get full access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts.

The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - August 6, 2024

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.